So now the Austrailian DJs have to apologize and cry on TV

because some wako nurse whose family should have had her in counseling or on medication flipped out and ALLEGEDLY killed herself over the royal baby prank.

Give me a break. This is about trying to indemnify against a lawsuit, which of course is coming.

They are in no way responsbile for that woman kiling herself. Nobody is living in a totally healthy and sane world and commits suicide over that.

Everyone who was ignoring this woman's sickness now wants to blame someone else out of their own guilt. But the woman clearly was in dire mental straights ... if this pushed her over the edge who knows what else she was grappling with and what else would have set her off.

What a sham. It's always someone else's fault. SUE SUE SUE.

by Anonymous

reply 79

12/12/2012

This story needs to go away. It's really tiresome.

by Anonymous

reply 2

12/10/2012

There should be laws against pranking people for radio, film, and TV programming. Singling out unsuspecting people for national and even international ridicule in the name of entertainment is a form of assault. People have a right to basic dignity and privacy. Entertainers who would rob them of that should be held legally accountable.

by Anonymous

reply 3

12/10/2012

I watched their interview and I'm sure they were heavily coached by their station's legal team. But the grief of the female one was definitely real.

Listening to what they said, I do think it was intended to be harmless and had they been disconnected as they'd anticipated, they would've continued on with it, mocking themselves for their bad accents, etc. Getting put through was a total stroke of bad luck ultimately.

by Anonymous

reply 4

12/10/2012

It's Dharun Ravi all over again.

by Anonymous

reply 6

12/10/2012

OP, would you be singing the same song if a young gay kid killed him/her self because of a prank gone wrong?

by Anonymous

reply 8

12/10/2012

[quote] I agree. Nobody kills themselves over a prank. This woman was clearly disturbed and needed help long before the call. Had she received that help and support, she never would've killed herself over something so petty.

But she didn't get help. And now she's dead. Maybe she would have killed herself anyway. Maybe she wouldn't have. Maybe being the punchline of an international joke caused her to snap.

Here we go again, blaming the victim. On a website populated by self-professed victims.

Just remember there's a lot of people who hate gay people and think gay people who kill themselves because of bullying are weak.

by Anonymous

reply 9

12/10/2012

[quote]It's always someone else's fault. SUE SUE SUE.

Or, in their case (as you put it forward), EXCUSES EXCUSES EXCUSES.

by Anonymous

reply 10

12/10/2012

[quote]On a website populated by self-professed victims.

Wow. I don't agree with OP at all, but you've just proven yourself an even bigger ashsole than he is.

by Anonymous

reply 11

12/10/2012

[quote]OP, would you be singing the same song if a young gay kid killed him/her self because of a prank gone wrong?

I'm not OP, but if the prank was done innocently and without malice (UNLIKE Dharun Ravi's prank), then yes.

by Anonymous

reply 12

12/10/2012

There is no such thing as an "innocent prank," R12. In order for a prank to succeed there has to be a victim. "We only meant for millions of people to laugh at her" is not a very defensible defense.

by Anonymous

reply 14

12/10/2012

[quote]In order for a prank to succeed there has to be a victim.

...and most prank "victims" understand that it was merely a joke and don't take it AT ALL personally.

by Anonymous

reply 15

12/10/2012

Tell me where you work, R15, and I can arrange for you to be the victim of a "harmless prank" that will have everyone howling with laughter except you. I am glad to know in advance that you won't be taking it at all personally.

by Anonymous

reply 16

12/10/2012

r9, I never blamed the victim. If anything I blamed the people who work with her and those who know her. They all probably knew she was suffering from depression and did nothing. Now they feel guilty they ignored the signs, so they want to shift that blame onto others.

by Anonymous

reply 17

12/10/2012

"I'm not OP, but if the prank was done innocently and without malice"

No, it was cruel and thoughtless, and intended to make one person suffer so that others could laugh. Doing this to an on-duty nurse is about as low it gets.

by Anonymous

reply 18

12/10/2012

R16? Unclench. I *have* been pranked at work on several occasions, actually. It is NOT a big deal for anyone who's mentally balanced, apparently unlike you.

by Anonymous

reply 19

12/10/2012

Some of you sound WEAK if you would kill yourselves over a prank.

This woman was obviously suffering from depression. She killed herself because of depression not because of a prank.

by Anonymous

reply 20

12/10/2012

Get a load of Heather Chandler at r20!

by Anonymous

reply 21

12/10/2012

R19, your ability to take a joke doesn't make it anyone else's responsibility to take a joke. Maybe if you were the victim of a prank that made the news on three continents you would feel a trifle more violated.

by Anonymous

reply 24

12/10/2012

Again, I believe the prank call was intended to be badly received and hung up on and then the two DJs would spend their time mocking themselves for their poor ruse. I don't think they expected to pull it off successfully at all. And once they did, they (including their station) all got caught up in getting away with it, without any thought to the other participants or the impacts to them. That was their big mistake.

I have no doubt that BOTH of the nurses were seriously reprimanded for what happened and probably felt threatened (if not actually *were* outright threatened) with a loss of employment or other disciplinary action.

And there are so many loony royal followers that, if the names of either nurse had gotten out, I'm sure they were already suffering the consequences on the various social media sites.

by Anonymous

reply 25

12/10/2012

The Assie station did break the law. It is illegal to broadcast a recorded conversation without the permission the those recorded. The station said they made several attempt to contact the hospital and were unable to contact them and went ahead and broadcasted what they had recorded. I am not certain about the law on the recording it in the first place. The station gave the go ahead to broadcast this.They were probably besides themselves with glee or what they recorded.

In the US there is a similar law. You can legally record the conversation but you can not broadcast without the consent of each participant. Prank radio records the conversation and they seek permission before broadcasting.

by Anonymous

reply 26

12/10/2012

This is exactly why this story needs to go away.

She was a victim.

No she wasn't. It was a harmless prank.

It wasn't harmless

Only because she killed herself, like an idiot.

She is a poor thing who was minding her own business when these heinous DJs tormented her.

But tje DJs never expected anyone to answer them and then kill herself.

It doesn't matter!!! The DJs need to go to jail for making prank!!!

Dude, she was obviously unstable to kill herself over a radio prank and leave her 2 kids behind.

And on and on and on.

by Anonymous

reply 27

12/10/2012

The DJs don't need to go to jail, R27. They need to be yanked off the air for good. Let them find a new line of work since they think tampering with other people's job security is a trifling matter. That would be sufficient and appropriate.

by Anonymous

reply 28

12/10/2012

R22 is such a victim.

There's little difference btw a gay teen that is bullied day after day, and an adult woman that was pranked ONCE?

And who is saying she was crazy? People are saying they think she suffered from depression. You're the one saying people who suffer from depression are crazy. So now saying a depressed person killed themselves is insulting?

And now everyone who doesn't think like you is EVIL? If anything it's you who sounds like the republican.

And who are you quoting on this thread when you say "She deserved it!" I must have missed that comment. Or are you just making that up to play the victim role?

by Anonymous

reply 29

12/10/2012

The same people that are making light of the nurse killing herself are the same people who say they're sorry "if" etc.

by Anonymous

reply 30

12/10/2012

R28 --- I believe I've read online already that their show *has* been cancelled now.

by Anonymous

reply 31

12/10/2012

[quote] The Assie station did break the law. It is illegal to broadcast a recorded conversation without the permission the those recorded.

Actually, I think the initial issue is that you aren't allowed to record a telephone call without the other party's consent.

by Anonymous

reply 33

12/10/2012

DAMN it , R34. Your badgering of R29 is victimizing him/ her and likely to end in suicide. Havent you learned anything from this tragedy you hearless cruel harpie?

by Anonymous

reply 35

12/10/2012

r24 makes a good point. The prank may have caused serious consequences for her continued employment at the hospital and for future employment somewhere else if they gave her a bad reference. Despite what the hospital administrators said on air, I doubt they were willing to consider the nurses "victims", and both of them got reamed and threatened with dismissal if they said as much. Notice the other nurse is saying nothing.

by Anonymous

reply 36

12/10/2012

[quote]The DJs don't need to go to jail, [R27]. They need to be yanked off the air for good.

As should Howard Stern and every single DJ who ever [pulled a stunt like that. I also think we should dig up Alan Funt and hang his decaying corpse from the Brooklyn Bridge!

by Anonymous

reply 37

12/10/2012

R37, everyone who appeared on Allen Funt's CANDID CAMERA signed a release form giving their permission to be broadcast.

by Anonymous

reply 38

12/10/2012

The people who came up with this "prank" obviously are too immature to be able to handle being professional broadcasters. It wasn't even a funny idea to begin with. I don't buy the "they were supposed to hang up on us" argument. These people are just stupid and feckless and don't belong on the air, or in any position of responsibility. I wouldn't trust them working the deep fryer at McDonalds.

What adds insult to injury is that what they did involved one of the more egregious tactics used by the "journalists" and "investigators" to invade the privacy of celebrities and other people in the news in order to find dirt to use for publication and extortion purposes on behalf of the Murdoch-owned "News of the World" and other tabloids in the U.K. As a matter of fact the results of the Leveson inquiry into press misconduct is a major topic in the U.K. right now as new regulations on the industry are being considered, so nobody in Britain is in any mood to shrug off yet another example of an irresponsible media ripping up people's lives without a second thought.

by Anonymous

reply 39

12/10/2012

Why weren't they fired?

by Anonymous

reply 40

12/10/2012

They don't have a show anymore. The laws have been reported everywhere and the station broke the law. You can say the nurse was unstable. Imagine how it feels to have been part of something that embarrassed the royal family and your employer and becoming the topic of a raging controversy on three continents.

by Anonymous

reply 41

12/10/2012

"Imagine how it feels to have been part of something that embarrassed the royal family and your employer and becoming the topic of a raging controversy on three continents."

But had she not committed suicide nobody would be talking about this prank.

And of course it wouldn't feel good and anyone would be embarrassed but nobody would kill themselves over it... unless they were already suffering from a mental illness. :(

by Anonymous

reply 42

12/10/2012

I suspect that the woman in question had been severely reprimanded by the hospital and possibly fired. I don't buy the hospital's statement that they didn't fire her or tell her off. Even so, many people get fired and don't commit suicide. I think this woman had a pre-disposition to depression or suicidal thoughts and this situation triggered her off. Looking at pictures of her she seemed miserable.

However, these Aussie DJs (and the radio company) still have a lot to answer for - not just the breaking of laws but also this whole culture of taking pleasure in or getting entertainment from embarrassing other people or meddling with their lives needs to stop. This radio company also has other DJs who have done and said horrible things on air. Kyle Sandilands. Look him up.

by Anonymous

reply 43

12/10/2012

I would agree with all you anti lawsuit types...except that Australians and Canadians are the parasites of empire. If they're stupid enough to kowtow to the Nazi royal family, then they should face the consequences of making fun of them. Off with their heads!

by Anonymous

reply 44

12/10/2012

"And of course it wouldn't feel good and anyone would be embarrassed but nobody would kill themselves over it..."

Unless she'd lost her job, or thought she was about to, and had no hope of getting another because of the horrible job market and the notoriety.

It is incredibly fucking evil to even THINK of endangering someone's job for a joke, much less for ratings. But the Aussie DJs did it, and put the tape on the air knowing that the nurses they spoke to could be fired for what they said. Penalties need to be paid.

by Anonymous

reply 45

12/10/2012

So... should Sasha Baron Cohen be vilified since at least one newscaster lost his job because of Borat?

by Anonymous

reply 46

12/10/2012

To the OP and the other culturally challenged posters - could you wait until the Coroner conducts an Inquest into the death of this loving mother, and nurse, before pronouncing your hateful, ignorant 'ideas'?

Who is to say it wasn't MI5?

by Anonymous

reply 47

12/10/2012

The nurse felt very strong public shame.

I also suspet the hospital was not supportive as they claim and may have come down very hard on her making her think her reputation as a nurse may be ruined or diminished, and perhaps her job was at stake because of her mistake.

by Anonymous

reply 48

12/10/2012

OP, you could have given us all a break and not start another thread about this story.

by Anonymous

reply 49

12/10/2012

To the Aussies or anyone else who may know--was the female D.J. a former BIg Brother contestant--the one who use to be an announcer on Friday Night Games? Or was that someone else?

by Anonymous

reply 50

12/10/2012

I just listened to the prank call. First of all, the woman who killed herself was the woman who simply put them through to the nurse that revealed everything?! That was a lighthearted prank. Sorry, this is faux outrage. The woman had problems. She was barely on the phone a second. I wonder how many people think the woman who killed herself was the one who went on and on about how he princess was doing, and thinking she was talking to the Queen and Prince Charles.

Just ridiculous. I would venture to bet that this woman didn't even kill herself over this.

by Anonymous

reply 51

12/10/2012

[quote]The nurse felt very strong public shame.

Oh, god. Creating a narrative. Get going, Mary.

by Anonymous

reply 52

12/10/2012

[quote]The prank may have caused serious consequences for her continued employment at the hospital and for future employment somewhere else if they gave her a bad reference.

Someone said none of that happened.

by Anonymous

reply 53

12/10/2012

[quote] I doubt they were willing to consider the nurses "victims", and both of them got reamed and threatened with dismissal if they said as much. Notice the other nurse is saying nothing.

The hospital is only pretending that Saldhana wasn't the one who took the call. They don't want the media continually playing portions of the conversation over the airwaves. "Here is the voice of the doomed nurse, telling the DJs Kate's condition."

by Anonymous

reply 54

12/10/2012

It's not the DJ's fault. We live in a time when nothing is off limits and nothing has value as a concept. It's the era's fault. And the internet's.

by Anonymous

reply 55

12/10/2012

[quote]So... should Sasha Baron Cohen be vilified since at least one newscaster lost his job because of Borat?

Sasha Baron Cohen should be pelted with cow dung.

by Anonymous

reply 56

12/11/2012

I hope all of you who blame the nurse will experience the humiliation that she experienced.

But then again, you guys have no feelings and no shame. You are just like those DJs.

by Anonymous

reply 58

12/11/2012

We have no idea what really happened because every other media outlet is using it to further their own agendas and boost their own ratings.

Hard questions aren't being asked because it benefits everyone to blame the DJs.

Once the tape started to be played more widely, public sympathy swung to the DJs because it was obvious that it was bogus, and that the woman must have had other issues.

The hospital wants the focus to remain on the DJs, as it distracts from their much more considerable liability for the incident. If such an obvious hoax could cause a privacy breach, what about someone with serious intent?

The other issue no one will talk about is whether or not her being foreign had anything to do with it, i.e. poor English skills and cultural ignorance. Someone like that may still be a good nurse, but s/he should never be on a switchboard.

Before anyone screams 'racist', we have a huge problem in Canada with this in the medical profession. Many south Asian male doctors won't accept females questioning them, either nurses or relatives. Good luck with finding one who's gay friendly, either.

My own doctor can't use the computer properly and doesn't have the English skills to read treatment protocols from other specialists. I had to read the e-mail over her shoulder twice and explain it to her (she's Chinese). Our town is short of doctors-except for the Indians.

While I think the OP's hysterical, he's basically right.

by Anonymous

reply 59

12/11/2012

Well, Kelly Osbourne tweeted that they should both be in jail for what they have done, so that's all I need to know!

by Anonymous

reply 60

12/11/2012

[quote]But had she not committed suicide nobody would be talking about this prank.

Ah, people were laughing at the hospital staff on three continents Before she killed herself.

Might even have been why.

by Anonymous

reply 61

12/11/2012

[quote]It's not the DJ's fault. We live in a time when nothing is off limits and nothing has value as a concept. It's the era's fault. And the internet's.

LMFAO!!! Prank calls were just invented? This was the lamest prank call ever made. It's not like they called up and told her that her family was massacred.

[quote]I hope all of you who blame the nurse will experience the humiliation that she experienced.

Someone calling us up as the Queen and the Prince, asking to talk to the Princess? Yeah, get us the noose!

by Anonymous

reply 62

12/11/2012

[quote]Ah, people were laughing at the hospital staff on three continents Before she killed herself.

link.

by Anonymous

reply 63

12/11/2012

if only there was some way to direct all the pranks to the people who defend them here, we could all be happy ... sure after a while you might be picked on or harassed, but that would be funny

and then we wouldn't have to worry about silly things like subjecting people you don't know to ridicule, because we know tough DLers can handle it?

can we start a sign up sheet?

maybe we could push OP out in the street naked, put photos on the web and have DLers mock his body...and then daily send pictures to everyone he knows so he never forgets

by Anonymous

reply 64

12/11/2012

r64 is embarrassing.

by Anonymous

reply 65

12/11/2012

BTW, this woman had children. Who would kill themselves when you have children over an innocent prank phone call? The woman had mental health issues. She didn't kill herself over a prank.

by Anonymous

reply 67

12/11/2012

why is that r65?

because people have a right to play pranks on people they don't know?

if you think it's okay to prank strangers, and everyone should be able to take it, why is anyone on DL not fair game?

by Anonymous

reply 68

12/11/2012

Tip of the iceberg for R63

by Anonymous

reply 69

12/11/2012

r68 - Get some therapy, hon. Did someone pull your chair out from under you in 5th grade or something? Time to put it behind you.

by Anonymous

reply 70

12/11/2012

no, R70, never victim of a prank.

I don't see why it's so hard not to pull pranks on people you don't know, not knowing what state they're in.

Clearly if you're not open to being exploited like I suggested you don't have the guts or a sense of humor.

And "hon" is so ridiculous... you should be punked just for that...

by Anonymous

reply 71

12/11/2012

Pranking is a mean-spirited and sadistic form of "humor" that depends upon making an unsuspecting person the butt of a joke. There's something seriously wrong with those who do pranks and also with those who consider that kind of humor to be funny.

I had a supervisor who loved to tell his captive audience at work about the hilarious pranks he had pulled through the years, usually on people who worked for him. Since he thought it was so much fun, I pulled a series of pretty bad pranks with him as the butt. No surprise, he went totally apeshit.

He was all the confirmation I needed that pranks are a form of humor that only jerks can enjoy.

by Anonymous

reply 72

12/11/2012

R46, you refuse to take into account the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen isn't funny.

by Anonymous

reply 73

12/11/2012

r71 - You beast! You don't know me. You don't know what state I'm in. What if I snuff myself because you insulted me?

by Anonymous

reply 74

12/11/2012

I don't think you get it.. a person is dead. Whether it was the prank alone that did it or not.. that doesn't matter. A person is dead because of something they did. Maybe she was depressed already and the prank just made it worse, or heck.. maybe she was an entirely healthy person but so distraught over what happened that she killed herself. The fact is that a person is dead because of a prank. They should feel guilty, because the prank was unnecessary, it was mean, and it certainly had consequences.

by Anonymous

reply 75

12/11/2012

They should be charged with murder. When a person drive's drunk and kills someone they are charged and they don't even mean to kill anyone. These guys actually tried to cause harm with their cold, cruel and malicious prank

by Anonymous

reply 76

12/11/2012

[quote]They are in no way responsible for that woman killing herself.

The radio station appears to differ, having contributed 320,000 pounds to a fund for the dead nurse's family.

by Anonymous

reply 77

12/11/2012

R25 and R48 have got it. The nurses were probably threatened will losing their jobs.

I worked at Harrod's back in the 1980s and heard stories where employees would lose their jobs if they even said something remotely out of line to a member of the Royal Family. I once waited on a minor member of the Royal Family (Princess Alexandra, cousin to the Queen).

Being a friendly American, I chatted with her for quite a while. I then noticed that she was being ushered around by an apparent senior Harrod's staff member (he had one of those "H" pins in his lapel) and I was like, "oh, shit, I probably just lost my job." The staffer did come back, but it was to thank me for making the Princess comfortable. Had she not enjoyed my conversation, I would have out the door.

Also take in mind that the nurse who killed herself was also a fairly recent immigrant, as well. What would be her chances of getting another job after all this? Add all of this together with all the public humiliation, then, yes, I can understand why someone (albeit with some mental illness) may consider suicide.

by Anonymous

reply 78

12/11/2012

r75, that is total bullshit.

As I said earlier, because it's to everyone's benefit to hang the DJs, so to speak, we really don't know why this woman killed herself.

And yes, it does matter what her circumstances were. If she was a ticking time bomb, anything could have set her off.

Anyone in that job needs to know exactly what the protocol is for patient privacy. The hospital is more at fault for putting someone like her on a switchboard, even if it was a quick fill-in.

The hospital is really at fault here, not the nurse. Especially if they are caring for celebrities-you know they are subject to all kinds of public intrusions like this.

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